Yes, it's a typo.

So I handed out a paper to my students, and at one point there is a typo that says "The Inca had to work for th4e Spanish." I had 5 students come to me and ask me what "th4e" meant. Really? How is it not obvious that is a typo, and the word is supposed to be "the"? I had to stop class and tell everyone to cross out "th4e" and write "the".
I'm agog at the lack of, SOMETHING, with these kids. Initiative? Understanding? Motivation? I don't know, but it seems to me even a younger student could figure out that it should be "the" and not lose their minds over it.

One letter of a is cut off of the end of a sentence.. like th instead of the! (and it's clearly the because it's the only word that makes sense!) That drives me crazy! I never say it but I'm like Really???? You can't figure that out???? I feel your pain!

I had a similar problem with a broken QR code today. YES, I KNOW THE QR CODE IS BROKEN AND I SAID IT TEN TIMES AND SO DID TEN OTHER KIDS. The phrase "this QR code isn't working!" must have been said 50 times.

After a few repeats of these kinds of questions I would stop, like you did, and tell everyone - but preface it with "listen carefully because people keep asking this question and if anyone asks me this question after I've told the whole class, they will have x consequence."

It's not the fact that they keep pointing out the error- it's the fact that they can't read the sentence, see "th4e" and figure out you meant "the". Like, where are their brains? Why can't they THINK?

We were painting the other day, and I gave students disposable cups for their paint. When they were finished, they were supposed to throw out their plastic cup and put their dirty brush in a larger cup full of water. Seems pretty easy to figure out, right? I guess TWO cups was too many, because I had more than one student ask what to do when they were done- "throw your paint cup in the garbage, then put your dirty brush in that cup with water" lead to a few looking at me, throwing away their paint cup and then slooooooooooowly putting their brush IN THE CUP IN THE GARBAGE. Like they knew it was wrong but couldn't figure out that the dirty brush went in that giant cup full of water and other dirty paintbrushes.

These are 5th graders, BTW. I'm not sure what grade you teach but....it does not seem to get better with age.

I feel your pain. I made a word search with spelling words. One word was "trick" Unfortunately when it copied it ended up looking like this - tnck , because the r and the i got connected. Anyway, I must have answered the same question 25 times!

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In this day and age it makes total sense to me why they would think it meant something.

I was actually looking twice at the word too. Maybe we should invent a word for it - looks like "therefore"

Stacey - your story made me . I have had the same experience with my students not understanding but trying to do something yet knowing it was wrong but not knowing what to do so they do.it.soooo.slowly.